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Idle Hands | 1999 | R | - 5.10.7

In this horror flick/black comedy, a high school slacker's hand becomes possessed and he's unable to stop it from causing murder and mayhem. With Devon Sawa, Seth Green, Elden Ratliff, Jessica Alba, Christopher Hart, Vivica A. Fox, Jack Noseworthy, Katie Wright, Sean Whalen, Nicholas Sadler, Fred Willard, Connie Ray, Steve Van Wormer and Kelly Monaco. [1:32]

SEX/NUDITY 5 - Lots of sexual innuendo (including references to masturbation and fellatio). Several kisses -- most are passionate. A boy and girl kiss passionately, then he fondles her bare breasts while kissing her stomach. A girl shoves a boy onto a bed and kisses him passionately; he then ties his hand to the bed frame. A boy grabs a girl's buttocks. A boy moves his hips and hand rhythmically, pretending to be receiving fellatio. A man has a brief phone sex conversation (nothing explicit is said). Twice, we see music videos in which scantily clad women gyrate suggestively; we also see a few girls in cleavage-revealing tops, short shorts and tiny dresses, and in one scene we see a girl in her bra and panties after her dress is accidentally ripped off. We see a ceramic figurine of a topless woman used as a bong to smoke marijuana. A boy uses a back-scratcher to scratch his crotch; in another scene, a boy puts his hand down the front of his pants and then sniffs it.

VIOLENCE/GORE 10 - Some of the scenes are frightening, some are comical, most are gory: A boy sticks a knitting needle through a man's ears (we see it sticking out of both sides of his head) and shoots another in the face with a few darts that spark and eventually electrocute him. We see a woman hanging by her neck, then it's implied that she's sliced by a large fan (blood splatters on another girl). A boy throws a saw blade at another's back and we hear a squishy noise as it hits; we see blood ooze from his neck, then see his head fall off and roll down a staircase (we see his blackish-blue colored head and his headless body in many more scenes). His head is eventually reattached with a barbecue fork -- one end of the fork is shoved into his head and the other end is shoved into his neck (we hear lots of squishy noises); blood and goo oozes from the gap in his neck after he eats. We see a boy with a broken bottle sticking out of his forehead (we see him like this in many more scenes, with his face and hands a blackish-blue color). A hand pulls a woman underneath a bed; gooey blood splatters onto the floor and the bed shakes violently. A boy cuts his hand off (we see the bloody knife and the boy's very bloody hand and arm stump); another boy puts a hot iron on the stump (we hear it sizzle) then wraps the stump in a plastic bag. A knife is thrown and pierces a hand, then lands in a boy's chest; the hand disintegrates and the knife is eventually pulled out of the boy's chest. A hand blackens, bubbles and squirts blood as it's being cooked in a microwave. A bloody, blackened hand crawls up a man's pants (we later see his bloody, lifeless body), grabs a boy's face and throws him around a room, rips a man's scalp off (we see his very bloody skull), strangles a girl, and throws a boy's head against a car window (blood splatters on the window and we see his bloody face and neck); it also flies through a window and sharpens its fingernails in a pencil sharpener. A boy knocks down two slightly bloody corpses -- one without an eye -- and lands between them; in a later scene, a boy pounds on one of the corpses' chests, trying to revive it. A buried corpse's hand breaks through the ground and grabs a man's hand and neck. A boy swings a cat over his head and it flies out a window and lands in some bushes. In one scene, boys are being threatened with guns; one of them is shot in the head but is fine (we see a slightly bloody bullet hole). Some scuffles, punches and shoves. A girl is hit in the head with a jar and a boy is hit in the head with a spade. Several times we see words written in blood, puddles of blood on the floor (a few people fall into them) and blood on people's clothing, hands and necks. A cat licks a puddle of blood and an eyeball with bloody veins attached (this is seen in close-up). A boy unknowingly uses a very bloody knife when making a sandwich (we see some blood mixed with mayonnaise). A man has a severely deformed hand and two blackened ears fall out of a bag. In a movie clip, a man bites a piece of bloody flesh out of a woman's shoulder. A woman tries to stab a man. Large lights fall onto some people and a car falls onto a boy (we later see him in a body cast). A girl is tied to the top of a car and is nearly crushed against a ceiling. A woman is knocked several feet when a car backs into her. We see what could be a blood-covered face during the opening credits. We hear a boy vomit.

LANGUAGE 7 - About 17 F-words, lots of anatomical references, scatological references and mild obscenities and several insults.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Murder, demonic possession, marijuana use, laziness.

MESSAGE - According to one of the characters, marijuana saves what would be another miserable day.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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